What are some good computer graphics programs?

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Adobe Photoshop CC and Blender are two good computer graphics programs. While Photoshop enables user to create and manipulate 2-D images, Blender is a 3-D modeling and animation application. As of January 2016, Adobe sells Photoshop as a part of its Creative Cloud Suite but Blender is an open-source project and thus free to use.

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Adobe Photoshop CC can create images from scratch, combine multiple images, alter colors, apply filters and more. The application works through multiple layers that are stacked on top of each other. As such, the application enables graphics artists to manipulate certain layers while keeping others intact. For instance, an artist can increate the saturation of the color of a car in the foreground without affecting the background image.

Users can either buy the Photography software package by Adobe to have Photoshop and Lightroom or purchase the All Apps package and have access to every tool in the Creative Cloud. As of January 2016, Adobe offers a 60 percent discount for students interested in the All Apps package.

In comparison, Blender is a polygonal 3-D modeling software that can handle model creation, animation, UV unwrapping, texturing and more. The application can rig 3-D models to animate them, calculate physics simulations, track camera movement and take high quality renders. Able to simulate light and shading realistically, the Cycles render engine comes as a part of the application. Blender artists rely on an array of keyboard shortcuts, rather than UI buttons.

Blender is available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and FreeBSD. In addition, software developers can access its source code and aid in its development. Users can also help by donating to the Blender Foundation and creating documentation for new users.